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A Texas man accused of killing six people, including four children, was turned away by a teenager when he first went to the victims' home, but he returned a short time later, kicked in the door, tied up the family and then shot them in the head execution style, according to court testimony today.

Ron Haskell, 33, was charged with capital murder following his arrest after a long standoff with police in Spring, Texas

The carnage ended when a wounded 15-year-old girl called 911 and alerted police to the shooting and said that the gunman was on his way to shoot her grandparents, police said. Cops intercepted Haskell, who was related to the victims, and took him into custody following a tense standoff.

According to a statement read in court this morning, the teenage girl told police that the shooter was her ex-uncle, and she survived by playing dead after he shot her in the back of the head.

During a preliminary court hearing this morning, a prosecutor said that Haskell came to the family's door posing as a FedEx delivery man and was wearing a FexEx shirt. FedEx confirmed to ABC News that Haskell previously worked as a driver for the company but was employed by an independent contractor. He stopped working for the company in January.

The teen told police that when she answered the door, she told Haskell that her parents were not home. He left, but came back and kicked in the door, the court was told.

I saw this on the news this morning. I thought this is a good case to prove that having crazy people locked up in hospitals is a more effective way to reduce the numbers of mass killings than gun control. The killer tried to strangle his mother a couple of weeks ago-if she had been able to have him committed then, he would have never had the chance to kill all the people he killed.

I saw this on the news this morning. I thought this is a good case to prove that having crazy people locked up in hospitals is a more effective way to reduce the numbers of mass killings than gun control. The killer tried to strangle his mother a couple of weeks ago-if she had been able to have him committed then, he would have never had the chance to kill all the people he killed.

After he was turned away, why was he not met with a weapon when he returned?

After he was turned away, why was he not met with a weapon when he returned?

I don't know about the adults, but I'll assume the teenager didn't have one.

Noonie's right. Why are so many mentally ill people running loose? Some might argue it's not mental illness. I don't agree in a lot of cases, but let's suppose that's right. Why is a man who just tried to strangle his mother walking the streets and not locked up *somewhere?*

There was a big movement in the 1960s and 70s to free the mentally ill from institutions. Certainly, some sanitarium patients may not have belonged there--but so many did. However, the argument was that the mentally ill were better served by "community based" medicine. St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington DC is a good example:

At its peak, the St. Elizabeths campus housed 8,000 patients and employed 4,000 people.[8] Beginning in the 1950s, however, large institutions such as St. Elizabeths were being criticized for hindering the treatment of patients. Community-based health care, as specified in the passage of the 1963 Community Mental Health Act, led to deinstitutionalization. The act provided for local outpatient facilities and drug therapy as a more effective means of allowing patients to live near-normal lives. The patient population of St. Elizabeths steadily declined.

One can directly trace the surge in the numbers of DC homeless with the release of many mentally ill from St Elizabeth's. Many live-in facilities had records of abuse and inhumane treatment of patients. However, improved standards for these facilities would have been a better answer than dumping the mentally ill in the streets and leaving them responsible to get to and from community based care.

I don't know about the adults, but I'll assume the teenager didn't have one.

Noonie's right. Why are so many mentally ill people running loose? Some might argue it's not mental illness. I don't agree in a lot of cases, but let's suppose that's right. Why is a man who just tried to strangle his mother walking the streets and not locked up *somewhere?*

Perhaps no so off topic, my wife and I were wondering, all of these crazy shootings, how many of these people were given meds as children to combat ADHD? Strange that no one has conducted a study linking violent behavior with giving young children psychotropic drugs.